2018 FIVB World Championship - Japan

    This is what people here mean when saying European teams having almost as much as Norceca is ridiculous... Just look at it, having replaced at least 1-2 spots with teams like Poland could have maybe helped 1st round not be as funny as it was with all the 3-0s..


    8/8 in 2nd round... No question about it



    Correction: Completely forgot the Americas are divided as well and have even more spots then Europe :aww:

    Quote from beri

    This is what people here mean when saying European teams having almost as much as Norceca is ridiculous... Just look at it, having replaced at least 1-2 spots with teams like Poland could have maybe helped 1st round not be as funny as it was with all the 3-0s..


    8/8 in 2nd round... No question about it

    Yes, especially Poland and Belgium would have been a big improvement instead of T & T and Cuba.


    well, you didn't mention that MEX came through to 2nd round (!!!!) because it was in such a weak group. i mean, i'm happy for bricio and rangel, and the other mexican players, who i'm sure work hard; but this is ridiculous. had they been in any other group... OTOH KOR didn't make it because their group was so tough. let me just say that MEX got through with one victory and 3 points.


    and to make things worse, the 2 pools are soooo freaking unbalanced, i can't even begin... pool E is a total joke.

    Quote from pope

    I hate to say this and of course I'm not blaming her... But that set Zivkovic gave her was not good... I wish Bojana had just tiped it over. During VNL I was so worried that Boskovic would get hurt trying to reach for those terrible sets....and tonight she gave Bjelica some terrible sets, after Bojana went down I noticed that Bjelica started to simply pass over a free ball instead of trying to reach for those off sets.


    Again I'm not blaming Zivkovic ..injuries are part of the sport and there's nothing to stop. Is just a fatality.


    But I'm not only saying this now.. U guys can look up my past posts and see that I mentioned before about someone getting hurt with Zivkvoic's bad sets

    "I am not blaming Zivkovic but damnnnn her sets are so bad"... So, you're blaming Zivkovic, at least indirectly.

    Quote from crovolley

    I'm so sorry for team as Bulgaria. They have HUGE talents but they just can't get it. I mean their players plays in very good clubs but something is missing, maybe coach ? They are like Croatia 2011-2014, very good names but as team nothing special.


    What are you talking about? Have you checked Bulgarian roster? They came to this WCH without Vasileva, Nikolova and Rabadzhieva... What did you expect??

    Quote from sloth

    Lloyd tried so hard to lose the match, but USA prevailed.. If you have a player like Foluke in the middle you CANNOT not play with her, it is so stupid

    I think what you are saying is that you need Foluke on the floor at all times....I disagree with you. Just my opinion but she is late to the block, which causes less of a block for and she is getting scored on. USA is not using the middle as much. She had a good serve run for a set. But I don't think she is the key to the middle.

    I'm not talking only about this WCH but overall. I know that they are missing key players, but their is always something in Bulgaria NT and they can't show their full power that they have.

    Quote from crovolley

    I'm not talking only about this WCH but overall. I know that they are missing key players, but their is always something in Bulgaria NT and they can't show their full power that they have.

    Yes, the absence of talent for big competitions like this.

    I think that it would be very difficult for Bulgaria to achieve somethink more than the 4th place in their pool and almost immposible to be in final 6 although they played really well in wch qual.


    A Bulgaria has some good players but i dont think that they are in the some level with usa,china,serbia etc...Nikolova is a good opposite but Boscovic, Egonu, Sloetjes are better. Zhu, Brankica, Hill,Larson,Natalia > Dobrianna. Maybe they could have been better in ECHs but not in WCH.

    And they have Vasileva. This 3 with Ruseva ad Dimitrova are very solid team.

    I agree with crovollley.. Obviously I'm not talking about this WCH, but they've had this team for quite a few years now, getting a medal at ECH is the least they could've done. Rabadzhieva-Vasileva, Ruseva-Filipova, Dimitrova.. all of these are pretty strong players. They only needed a better setter and libero to be a top team, but even with the team they had they should have accomplished better results

    Quote from Maxwell

    I think what you are saying is that you need Foluke on the floor at all times....I disagree with you. Just my opinion but she is late to the block, which causes less of a block for and she is getting scored on. USA is not using the middle as much. She had a good serve run for a set. But I don't think she is the key to the middle.

    No. What he and others like me are saying is, you can't pretend such a dominant attacker as Foluke doesn't exist, and keep setting balls to the wings who are struggling to kill any ball. There were moments today where Carli would go 3 times in a row in a single point to Hill, and she would end up getting blocked. She did the same with Murphy, and totally avoided setting Foluke. I know their connection is not the best, but to be honest she was struggling setting Gibby, and Rachael yesterday too. Give Foluke a decent set, she'll kill it. Even if she (Foluke) was the one to blame, neither Hill, nor Murphy was scoring, so why keep setting them?

    I agree setting Hill and Murphy over and over again was ridiculous. I would have like Carli to do a setter dump when nothing else was working. Was Carli not setting her because the passes were bad to set a middle? I think that was more of an issue. But actually Russia was doing a great job hitting and blocking.

    Quote from ossubtus

    well, you didn't mention that MEX came through to 2nd round (!!!!) because it was in such a weak group. i mean, i'm happy for bricio and rangel, and the other mexican players, who i'm sure work hard; but this is ridiculous. had they been in any other group... OTOH KOR didn't make it because their group was so tough. let me just say that MEX got through with one victory and 3 points.


    and to make things worse, the 2 pools are soooo freaking unbalanced, i can't even begin... pool E is a total joke.

    And Mexico has to be grateful to their latina compatriots from Argentina, they were already eliminated before their final match, but did Mexcio the favour to play full level with all players to beat Cameroon in three sets and this way let Mexcio to the second round.